Neville Longbottom - Liability to Legend
by PaperToast
Summary: What was Neville doing while Harry, Ron and Hermione were having their adventures? How did Neville progress from liability to legend? My first FF but we'll see how it goes, feel free to leave comments, and if there's anything in particular you'd like to see me put in, the let me know! All credit for the universe to JK Rowling, of course!
1. Chapter 1 - The Letter

Chapter 1 – The letter

Neville Longbottom was hopeless. Everything he had ever tried had backfired. His parents had been tortured to insanity during a recent war, and were confined to living in hospital for the rest of their lives. His Gran had brought him up, comparing him to his parents, particularly his father, Frank. Gran was Frank's mother. Neville knew about magic, he was aware that his parents had been very good at it, and they'd been fighting a war against evil wizards and witches. During that war, another family had also been torn apart. James and Lily Potter had been murdered by a dark wizard named Voldemort. Neville had been instructed to never mention his name, and instead refer to him as either _You-Know-Who_ or _He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named_. Supposedly, their son, Harry, had survived the attack, after the killing curse had rebounded onto Voldemort. However, nobody had seen or heard from Harry since the incident.

Neville's family, and particularly Great-Uncle Algie, had desperately tried to force Neville to do magic. Algie had, in fact, once pushed Neville off the end of Blackpool Pier, but Neville nearly drowned.

Imagine Gran's surprise, and everyone's surprise, when a letter came through the door addressed to Neville. With shaking hands, he ripped open the envelope, and began to read it aloud.

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

 _Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

 _(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Mr Longbottom,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

Neville couldn't speak, Gran looked more proud than Neville had ever seen her. The rest of the day went very quickly for Neville, family members came and went. Great-Uncle Algie brought a gift for Neville, he was over the moon.

When Gran took Neville to buy his equipment, from Diagon Alley, he found himself well out of his comfort zone, there was magic everywhere. There were shops selling brooms, shops selling owls, an ice cream parlour, joke shops, a book store, a shop for potion ingredients, a wand shop, shops with writing supplies, shops selling robes and other clothes, and, at the end of the alley, a huge gleaming bank. Gringotts was etched over the entrance.

Neville didn't need a wand. He had inherited his fathers, which Gran assured him would be perfect, and frankly more than he deserved. Gran was hard on him, Neville knew that, but he meant a lot more to her than she ever let on.

They went to buy Neville's robes first, from _Madam Malkin's_ and she had to try a bigger robe twice before finding one that Neville could fit into. This depressed Neville, and when Gran offered him an ice cream, he turned it down, despite her saying it was the best ice cream in the world, and despite him really wanting it.

Next Gran took him to _Flourish and Botts_ to buy his school books. Neville was shocked at how many he had to have, and was concerned at his ability to carry them around school, but Gran assured him he wouldn't need them all at the same time. If there hadn't been so many, Neville might have asked Gran to get him two of each, for if and when he lost them.

Gran could see that Neville wasn't enjoying himself, so she announced that they only had one more shop to go to; _Scribbulus Writing Instruments_. This cheered Neville up, and he was in a better mood coming out of the shop, despite having bought more things for him to lose.

When they got home, Neville asked how he was going to get to Hogwarts.

"By train, dear," Gran said, and Neville accepted this for a moment, before asking another question.

"Train from where, Gran?" she looked at him and smiled, before simply saying, "Kings Cross Station."

This panicked Neville, for he wasn't good when lots of people were around, he was liable to get nervous and mess up, "But won't there be lots of muggles?" he spluttered.

"Not on Platform 9¾ dear." Neville regarded this as a joke, so didn't bother asking anymore.

He didn't have to ask again when Gran handed him his ticket, and much to Neville's surprise, it said:

HOGWARTS EXPRESS

KINGS CROSS PLATFORM 9¾


	2. Chapter 2 - The Train

Chapter 2 – The Train

Neville took a cab to Kings Cross, with his Gran. He was nervous; very nervous actually. He didn't know how to do any magic, and still had a suspicion he might not be able to do any at all. His only salvation was Trevor, the toad Great-Uncle Algie had given him when he received the letter from Hogwarts, a congratulations gift.

On arrival, Gran led him past all of the muggles in the station and down to Platforms 9 and 10. Neville, who had been treated as a fool for much of his short life, didn't dare believe Gran when she explained that in order to get to Platform 9¾, they would have to run at a brick wall. Gran essentially hauled Neville towards this wall, so he shut his eyes, bracing for the impact.

It didn't come, much to Neville's shock and relief. He finally opened his eyes and felt his jaw drop. A gleaming, scarlet steam train stood proudly by the platform. He was astonished, but also slightly scared, as there were so many people on the platform.

Neville felt his pocket, for Trevor. He wasn't there. It had already happened a few times on the journey and back at home, Neville was beginning to get the impression that the toad didn't like him.

"Gran, I've lost my toad again!" Neville said as a large family bustled there way behind him, all with bright ginger hair, he noticed, except one. The odd one out was wearing glasses, he had pitch black hair that stuck out at weird angles, tatty clothes that seemed too large, and a beautiful, white snowy owl. He looked awestruck.

"Oh Neville!" Gran sighed.

After being reassured that Trevor would turn up, Neville clambered aboard the train, and searched for, at the very least, a quiet carriage. He discovered one, with just one girl in it, poring over a stack of books, whispering to herself, completely oblivious.

"Uh, e- excuse m- me?" Neville stuttered, silently cursing himself at his awkwardness.

"Oh hello! You can sit down if you'd like!" She exclaimed, smiling brightly at him. Neville stumbled onto the seat opposite her, and examined her for the first time.

Her most obvious feature, was her copious amount of bushy brown hair, which seemed to cover her entire head, so she had to keep sweeping it off of her face. She was relatively small, slightly smaller than himself, Neville judged. As she looked up and smiled, Neville noted that she, like himself, possessed a slightly overly large pair of front teeth.

"I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger." She stated, "You are?"

"Um, N- Neville L- Longbottom." Again Neville cursed himself.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm just reading through all of my books again."

Neville had never been one for conversation, and sat, looking out of the window for a bit, he was faintly aware of Hermione's muttering, and activity in the aisle of the train, but Neville tried not to think about anything.

When Hermione decided to put on her school robes, Neville scrambled his way out of the carriage faster than she could have said 'Hogwarts'. With no real idea of who anyone was, or what they were doing, Neville resolved to try and find Trevor.

As he walked down the aisle, he found himself having to dodge the food cart, and plenty of rowdy students. At one point Neville jumped to the side to avoid a great, hairy tarantula that was causing much hilarity with some students. In doing so he painfully collided with a door frame, bringing tears to his eyes.

Peering into carriages as he went, Neville was looking for anyone that looked friendly enough to ask. He had nearly reached the end of the train when he spotted the boy with the glasses, and one of the ginger haired boys from the platform. He knocked on the window and slid the door across.

"Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?" Neville managed, impressed at his lack of stammering. The boys both shook their heads, and Neville felt his entire frustration rise. "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said the boy with the glasses, and Neville felt strangely calmed by him.

"Yes, well if you see him." Neville mumbled, slid the door shut, and trudged away; hearing the ginger boy say, "Don't know why he's so bothered. If I bought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could."

Neville was tempted to start asking people, but realised any ounce of confidence he had had had disappeared.

"Hey Neville! Where did you go?" Neville looked up to see Hermione, so he grumbled something about losing his toad. "Oh no worries! I'll help you find it! But you better get your robes on, we're nearly there. I won't look I promise."

So Neville anxiously got into his robes, and stumbled after Hermione, who had mentioned something about starting at one end of the train.

Hermione looked into the first carriage, and saw three boys and one girl, she wrenched open the door, "Sorry to bother you, but you haven't seen a toad have you?" The occupants all stared quizzically back at her, "Not to worry, but if you do see one, Neville here's lost his." A couple of the boys sniggered, so Hermione backed out, slightly embarrassed.

The next carriage they came to had only two occupants, an extremely loved up couple, and Neville was very relieved when Hermione decided not to interrupt. The third carriage's occupants were friendlier, but they hadn't seen any toads, much to Neville's dismay.

Hermione's next target was the carriage Neville had already asked in. "Oh H- Hermione I've already been in that one." Neville said quietly, so quietly in fact that it appeared Hermione hadn't actually heard him.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville lost one." Neville looked away, embarrassed. He could've sworn he saw a creature hop into the next carriage along. When Neville returned to watching the exchange between Hermione and the ginger haired boy, he noticed it was no longer about toads, or finding anything, but the boy's attempt at magic. It didn't seem to work.

Hermione launched into a paragraph on how she much learning she'd done, and the amount of practice she'd done. Neville didn't want to listen, so he very nearly missed the introductions.

"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

"I'm Ron Weasley," muttered the ginger boy, Neville made a mental note to write that down before he forgot it, as it turned out, he forgot to write it down.

The black haired boy with glasses was much more cheerful, "Harry Potter" he said. Neville managed to stop himself from gasping and opened his mouth to say something. Hermione beat him to it.

She then continued to talk, about the houses at Hogwarts. That was a topic Neville hadn't wanted to come up, he was aware of them, from Gran.

 _"Gryffindor is for the brave, born leaders usually; your mother and father were both Gryffindors. Ravenclaw is for the intelligent, apologies Neville, but I really don't think you'll be in Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff is for those that aren't necessarily the best at magic, but are loyal and kind-hearted. Slytherin, if you get sorted into Slytherin don't bother coming home, is for those that are cunning and ambitious, but beware of some Slytherin's my boy. Be careful."_

The rest of the journey passed without incident, Hermione seemed to have forgotten about finding Trevor, and no sooner had they got back to their carriage, had she left again. Neville was glum. He had already made himself looked stupid, and he'd lost his toad before he'd even reached school. What would Gran say? She had always been hard on him, harder since they'd discovered he was actually a wizard. For a while most of Neville's family had thought he wasn't, and the thought crossed Neville's mind again, that maybe he wasn't.

It seemed like hours before a voice filled the train, stating that Hogwarts was now only five minutes away. This was of no help to Neville, if anything it made him feel worse, he just wanted to go to bed.

Neville lumbered off the train, looking around.

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!" shouted a loud voice, "C'mon, follow me – anymore firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"

"Neville?" Hermione called, and Neville breathed a sigh of relief, she would know what to do. They followed a big burly man, the owner of the loud voice, with a bushy beard, to the 'boats'.

Neville's first sight of Hogwarts was one he'd never forget, a huge, dark castle, with yellow light emitting from windows that covered the exterior. A wave of emotions crashed into him, awe, apprehension, excitement, sadness. Awe; because the castle was incredible. Apprehension; he could already see himself getting lost, breaking things and generally being clumsy. Excitement; this was his home now. Sadness; his Mum and Dad had come here, many years ago.

"No more'n four to a boat!" The big burly man called, so Neville and Hermione clambered into one with Harry Potter and, oh what was his name? Rowan? Reginald? Rupert? Ron. That was it. Ron Weasley.

The boats passed over a lake, gliding effortlessly. Neville tried not to think about falling in, because he knew he would. They entered a hole in a cliff, and Neville felt his heartbeat speed up. He climbed out of the boat, onto a rocky shore.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" the burly man called. Neville turned, and suddenly he felt much better, it would be alright. He held out his hands for the toad to jump into.

"Trevor!"

The group made their way out of the underground harbour, and across the lawns in front of the school, before ascending some very wide stone steps, to a giant oak door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" the man looked at Neville. Then he knocked on the door. Neville gulped.


End file.
